Magic Flight
Just like the automobiles shipped out of Detroit’s GMC factories during the thriving days of the motor city, Magic Flight’s Launch Box is made and assembled in the good ol’ USA. With a carved wood body, hand-crafted by artisans based in San Diego, the design has remained largely unchanged since the inception of the first Launch Box portable vaporizer. While it may not feature LCD screens or space-age materials, the Launch Box vape excels at its one true function, vaping, with reliability and ease of use.
This is the perfect portable vaporizer for those used to more traditional means of dry herb consumption. The handcrafted wood offers a nice feel in the hand, and the operation is unrivaled in its simplicity. The unit consists of the box with a heating element and a battery, to use, simply push the battery until it clicks and you’re ready to vape. The units are guaranteed for life, to offer extra peace of mind when buying and feature easily replaceable components to ensure usage is never interrupted due to a small malfunction.
There’s a sort of mythos and almost cult-like following that surrounds the Launch Box. From the quotes which are printed on the every unit to the unique design and dedicated community, this is a vaporizer which offers an unparalleled level of communal appeal for the user.
Product Spotlight: Magic Flight Dry Herb vaporizer and Muad-Dib wax vape
This might be cheating, but Magic Flight’s entire line of vaporizers consists of two similar but very functional vapes, each engineered for specific purposes. The original Magic Flight is optimized for dry herb vaporization and handles the purpose with aplomb. The Muad-Dib is the newest iteration of the Launch Box vaporizer, featuring a heating chamber and brass rails which function at a higher temperature, to extract all the essential vapors from your concentrates and waxy oils.

One of our favorite things about traveling to trade shows each month is the time we get to spend visiting the local smoke shops and meeting the people who educate their customers about our products. In addition to the good memories we walk away with, we always enjoy asking the question of what we as a company can do to help make shop owners lives easier. The variety of feedback we get and insights into peoples businesses is always fascinating, but something that constantly came up was our little postcard, that we affectionately call the educard, a 4×6 postcard containing product information. We loved hearing that this was something that enables shop owners to breath easier in their lives, so we took it to the next level, creating this 4 fold brochure outlining all the features of our most beloved product, the Launch Box. Our shipping team needed a way to distinguish between the old postcard (the edu-card) and the new expanded brochure, and the name “The Edu-Bro” was born.

We appreciate your interest in reading our little sneak peek into the inner workings around Magic-Flight Head Quarters in San Diego, California. Here is some love from our customers we would like to share with you;

“Thanks for such customer-centric customer service. I praise Magic Flight to all my friends & associates, even advocating to those who don’t vape. The brilliance & simplicity of your Launch Box is complimented by the integrity of your business.”

“Thank you for loving what you do!
Thank you for keeping us healthy for more love & life!
The Magic Flight Company and Products are awesome!”

“Just wanted to drop you guys a line and thank you for the MFLB. This was my first dry herb vaporizer and after a few months of ownership, I can’t think of a good reason to get anything different. I have to say that I really prefer ‘analog’ devices to digital in general. So the entire philosophy behind the Launch Box is right up my alley. I have lived here in San Diego for about 20 years, so I feel like I have a ‘feel’ for the city and this is it. A little wood box that heats up my herbs and calms my mind after a day at the office. So thanks for the analog love. Keep up the good work!”

“Hello! I really appreciate the personal email instead of the usual automated stock replies most companies used. It’s a nice touch and it definitely makes me feel like I’m supporting a really cool, caring business. It’s refreshing to encounter customer service this great, especially for a major online retailer. I appreciate it.”

When Magic-Flight was just starting out, our first move after getting the functionality locked in was to hire a few people to help build launch boxes out of our tiny residential garage. We were blessed to be able to grow organically, in such a way where all of the original employees came to the company by word of mouth, as friends of friends. As such, there has always been a particular family kind of vibe, including similar values.

We’re proud to say that our products are handmade with Love by artisans in San Diego – which is truly a rarity in the quickly-expanding vaporizer industry. We make our products from wood because we believe in sustainability and being as eco-conscious as possible. We offer a lifetime functional warranty on our vaporizers, and provide world-class, authentic customer service.

Lately, we have been looking back at the past decade pondering – where has the time gone…..looking at our NY Times review from 2 years ago and thinking – that seems like last week! Magic-Flight is ever thankful for the hardworking employees who show up everyday ready to help the world breath easier. Coupled with our loyal vape community, Magic-Flight looks forward to the days ahead with our new products as well as the OG of them all….the Maple Launch Box.

Immersed in Spring and tending our plants, some of us at Magic-Flight got to talking about the love of ritual as an act of creativity, and believe the old yogic saying “Where attention goes, prana flows”. In other words, ritual is a good way to devote a little more of your attention to a particular issue or idea, which can produce noticeable shifts and new outcomes.

Ritual is nothing more than the act of bringing our attention to dwell upon the natural world and how our internal experience and the larger, collective, observable experience of the present moment can be held together momentarily in our awareness. Try one of these to get inspired!

Seed Paper:
Try spending a few quiet moments outside in nature visualizing what you would like to see take root in your life, and write your intention on a piece of plantable seeded paper. Water and watch your intentions bloom alongside beautiful non invasive species of wildflowers.

Seed Boms:
When considering what we are collectively wanting to cultivate here at headquarters, Seedbombs keep coming to mind.

A seed bomb is a ball of seeds held together in a matrix by a non-toxic, biodegradable material, making it easier to plant seeds in hard to reach places, such as empty lots found in most cities.

For equinox purposes, you can try holding your seed bomb, quietly infusing it with your intentions for the next season, before hurling it into your nearest abandoned lot or backyard dirt patch, imagining yourself “letting go” of your attachment to the outcome.

For us, seed bombs seems to be the right symbolic tool for what we are wanting more of at this time, which is surrender. To sow the seeds of our dreams, let them go, and really be able to rest in the knowledge that excessively controlling the process severely limits the potential for magic in the outcome.

Magic-Flight is still Choosing On The Basis Of Love…however, we slacked a bit on blog entries! Guess what? We are still here and energized to re-engage with our lovely fans. So much has happened since we last checked in; babies born, people moved away, new products launched, and so much vaping! We are looking forward to the year ahead and our favorite date, 4/20, is soon approaching. What are we going to do to celebrate the best day of the year? You’ll have to check in with us to find out; our social media universe and website will be buzzing soon.

Some of the wonderful women at Magic-Flight

Magic-Flight is super thankful for the amazing flight crew working hard every day to bring their best so you feel it with every trench. With other options out there, there is something to be said for a handmade, wooden, sustainable, portable vaporizer, made by cool cats in California, and you know exactly what you are vaping! No chemicals and no questions….maybe you even grew the contents of your trench load!

Ever wondered what it was like at Magic-Flight and who invented this handy, little gadget in the first place? Check out this Behind The Scenes at Magic-Flight courtesy of Direct Cannabis Network…we love them.

As lovers of both our craft, and the natural materials we use in creating, it is not uncommon to find our artisans perusing the lumberyards, on the hunt for the most unusual and special pieces of wood to create with. For some time now, our most veteran of artisans have been eager to have the opportunity to create some beautiful pieces out of Honduran Mahogany.

Swietenia Macrophylla, also known as Genuine Mahogany has been highly sought after by artisan woodworkers the world over for its color, chattoyance, workability, and resistance to moisture and rot. These qualities have historically made Mahogany a natural choice for many projects, including boat building, cabinetry and furniture making. The ability to resist moisture and decay also make it an ideal choice for the building of humidors, (cigar boxes) contributing to its popularity in areas of the world where cigars are produced. It is also often used in the making of guitars, producing a deeper, more resonant sound in the body of the instrument.

Wood carvers and builders alike enjoy the machinability of Mahogany over many other types of wood. In Mahogany, an artisan finds a responsiveness to the tools of the trade,(chisels, saws, drills) and the wood itself seems an eager participant in the creative process. Despite all these glowing characteristics, it is also an endangered wood, meaning that great care is needed to ensure the sustainability and integrity of our supply. We want to know that these majestic trees will continue to exist and be enjoyed by many generations to come. Thankfully, we were able to import our supply through a plantation that grows its trees in a legal and sustainable manner, passing CITES Appendix II standards for the importing of raw lumber into the country. This tightly regulated process insures our Honduran Mahogany to be of the most reputable origin.

When looking at Mahogany, an experienced wood worker will be able to tell just by observing the color and texture, weather the wood in question can truly be called Genuine Mahogany. This means that the tree was either grown in its native environment, or cultivated in such a way that preserves its natural personality profile. When a tree has been transplanted to a new environment or climate, it often needs to adapt to survive, taking on character traits belonging to trees native to the new region. An example of this is Honduran Mahogany grown in Mexico, which evidences a distinctly different color. To our delight, we observed the most favorable characteristics in the wood, indicating our source’s growth and harvesting practices to be of high standards. The result in well cultivated wood evidencing all the most desirable features of Genuine Mahogany.

A few weeks back, we began sifting through our lumber, selecting the very best pieces with the intent to produce a small run of Mahogany Muad-Dib concentrate boxes. We carefully sorted through each piece for consistency in figure and color for the sake of delivering a premium product. It was our first time doing a run of this wood, and despite mahogany’s reputation for machining remarkably well in relation to other hardwoods, we were pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable it was to work with, even remarking at some point along the way:

“This stuff was made to be turned into Launch Boxes!”
Each and every Muad-Dib produced in this limited release was hand run from raw stock to finished product by two of our most senior artisans as a special project and as such is truly a labor of love. Visit our Artisan Collection to get yours while supplies last.

We have all heard the sentiment expressed that in the age of digital customer reviews, “Everyone’s a Critic”. One of the things we love most about working at Magic-Flight is that because we pour so much care and attention into supporting our customers in being successful with our products, we get to enjoy a much different experience than that of many other companies. We receive an absolute flood of love letters each day from our community of Launch Box owners, letting us know how the things we make here are affecting their lives for the better. We even have a special bulletin board up in our common room where we keep our favorite customer messages so that everyone here can have a chance to feel the love.

As we begin thinking of things we are grateful for in preparation for Thanksgiving, our many unique and special customers are at the very top of our list. However, a special note received from one of our long time Instagram supporters really stands out. Earlier this year, we were lucky enough to receive a digital tarot reading from the artist @harpeli, a self described rune maker, poet, and tarot reader. Through Instagram, we have gotten to know each other a little better, and discovered that Eli, like us, is also a dedicated woodworker, recently winning our hearts once again by sending us an amazing handmade wood tile commemorating our now famous quote, “Love is That Which Enables Choice.”

Check out Eli’s Etsy shop where you can choose from many affordably priced original designs of wooden runes, stash boxes, and more, just in time for holiday gift giving.

We are grateful for how the internet has provided us with this connection!

For those of you who are familiar with our books of philosophy, you may have noticed that each begins with the dedication:

“For the earth, to all of life and nature.”

This is a deeply felt acknowledgement of the interconnectedness that exhisit between all living things. Our actions and choices truly do impact all of life everywhere. Last year, as part of our ongoing commitment to becoming ever more sustainable, and to helping people breath easier, one of our crew members accompanied ambassadors from Eden Reforestation Projects to the forest of Madagascar.

Eden Projects is one of the most successful reforestation groups in the world, planting tens of millions of new trees every year.

“Eden Projects reduces extreme poverty and restores healthy forests in Haiti, Madagascar, and Ethiopia by employing local villagers to plant millions of trees”

Magic-Flight was honored to be able to travel to Madagascar in person to assist this amazing organization in building relationships with the communities that we sponsored to plant and maintain an entire new forest!

Since the beginning, our creative and unique Flight Crew members have gone out of their way to personalize their work areas with handmade signs, many of which serve the dual function of being irreverently funny and sharing important information about staying safe on the job. Over time, that culture has become so integral to who we are that we had begun to take its significance for granted, to the point where we were truly surprised and touched when, following a thorough review, Farmers Business Insurance decided to give us an award for the outstanding culture of workplace safety here at Magic-Flight.

Safety Excellence Award presented to us by Farmers Business Insurance

In their letter, they made it clear that very few businesses receive this award, and cited many examples of what set us apart from other manufacturers. Here’s just a few examples of some of the nice things they had to say about us:

…Because there is nothing like a spontaneous mid-day Nerf War to help break up the day. Yes, this actually happens here. Regularly. Hence the need for designated ” No Nerf” zones. (as seen below)

“You are always striving to provide the best possible work environment, including engineering and process design, culture, employee training and job rotation, not to mention coaching, compassion, and empathy. You and your team have earned this honor.

Some of your actions include:

• Customizing various features and jigs not just for precision and efficiency but also to optimize safety ( e.g. capture dust at the source, keep body parts away from the point of operation, enhance ergonomics and reduce fatigue.)

• Measuring the airborne levels of dust (they are three levels below the limit!) and installing additional dust collection equipment.

• Contracting with a Massage therapist to come on site 3 or more days a week to maintain the health of production employees.

The Door to our wood shop press room.

• Having a dedicated safety person who gives meetings/ training to all departments every two months, and also performs monthly and quarterly workplace inspections. She has done an impressive job and done a lot in a very short time.

• Working to instill a close knit, multilevel, family type of culture with the employees.

• Reducing noise level by enclosing equipment and installing sound absorbing materials to the walls, even though the average sound level is well below the threshold, employees are still required to wear ear protection in the woodworking room.”

At Magic-Flight, we seek always to be growing as individuals, and as a community. Our Flagship product, the Launch Box is hand crafted by skilled artisans in an 84 step production process, a fact that gives us great pride in our work, as well as providing daily opportunities to develop skills and capacities that can be applied to all manner of creative projects and situations in life. We especially appreciate the way the craft of woodworking develops our patience, focus, problem solving skills and mind-body connection.

It has been said that the table saw is the heart of the wood shop. If the table saw is the heart, then the Lathe is the soul. The lathe is an ancient piece of rotary machinery used throughout the world in the making of tools, chair legs, musical instruments, bowls and more. Although there are currently many types of lathes, including those used in recording, glass working, and metal spinning, they are all descended from the original wood lathe. As our artisans grow in mastery of their craft, the Lathe is increasingly available as an outlet for creativity and means of exploration of material and form.

The art of wood turning can be traced back as far as Ancient Egypt, where a two person “strap lathe” was used to create intricate wood carvings. One person would work the strap to create semi- continuous motion while the other held the wood and performed the actual carving. Although the technology has advanced greatly over the centuries, the basic concept remains the same. With Lathed Wood Plug Earrings recently being added to our Artisan Collection, we happily join in this storied lineage, and look forward to offering more lathed wood products in the future.